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Judge sentences ex-Dublin federal prison warden in inmate sex abuse case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

OAKLAND — The former warden of a Dublin federal prison and reputed member of the facility’s notorious “rape club” was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for sexually abusing incarcerated women and later lying to investigators about it.Ray J. Garcia, the former warden of the federal women’s prison in Dublin, leaves the Federal Courthouse in Oakland in November 2022. Garcia, the former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women’s prison known as the “rape club,” was found guilty in December of sexually abusing three incarcerated women and lying to federal investigators. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Ray J. Garcia received a sentence of 70 months in prison by a federal court judge after the hearing, which came three months after a jury convicted the warden of sexually abusing three incarcerated women at FCI Dublin and trying to cover it up.Garcia, who wore a gray suit and blue and white tie was ordered to appear in custody on May...

Map: 3 killed by falling trees during Bay Area storm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

Three people were killed by falling trees Tuesday as a “bomb cyclone” storm swept through the Bay Area.The map shows the locations of the fatal incidents. Click the links for the full articles.1/ Portola Valley, 1:34 p.m. A man driving a work van was killed by a falling tree on Alpine Road just west of Interstate 280.2/ Oakland, 4:23 p.m. A man believed to be homeless was killed when a tree fell on his tent on the shore of Lake Merritt.3/ Walnut Creek, around 7 p.m. Thomas Huster, 79, of Walnut Creek, was killed when the car in which he was riding was struck by a large tree on Stanley Dollar Drive in the Rossmoor community. The driver suffered minor injuries.Winds of more than 70 mph were recorded at more than a dozen sites in the Bay Area on Tuesday afternoon. The strongest gusts (chart) were around 1:30 to 2 p.m. in the South Bay and on the Peninsula, and around 4:30 to 5 p.m. in the Golden Gate area and the East Bay.A National Weather Service meteorologist called the ...

LA strike highlights paltry US school worker pay

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

By Jocelyn Gecker and Collin Binkley | Associated PressSAN FRANCISCO — Bus drivers shuttle America’s children to schools where cafeteria workers feed them and teacher aides assist students who need the most help.And their pay is notoriously low. School support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 a year in Los Angeles, barely enough to get by in one of the most expensive cities in America.The pay is a driving factor behind a three-day strike that has shut down the entire Los Angeles school system and put a spotlight on the paltry pay of support staff that serves as the backbone of schools nationwide.Even outside pricey California, the school gigs often don’t pay enough to live on.Arthur Anderson, a school worker in Virginia, says it’s a shame it took a walkout to draw attention to the longstanding problem, but he hopes it helps.“People are so frustrated. We all are,” said Anderson, a teacher’s assistant in the Chesapeake Public School System w...

Brentwood invites local organizations to apply for economic development grant program

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

BRENTWOOD — This city is inviting businesses to apply for financial assistance through its economic development grant program, which is intended to support small businesses, local tourism and community-based promotional events and projects.The application window opened March 20 and ends April 17, and the grant period covers projects occurring between July 1 and June 30.The city’s economic development staff is holding a virtual workshop on March 23 from 6 to 7 p.m. to provide an overview of the process and guidelines.Applications will be reviewed and scored, presented to the Land Use and Development Committee and brought to the City Council for approval. Once approved, the applicant can request reimbursement by submitting required forms and supporting documentation.For new applicants, the award will be paid in one lump sum within 30 days after all required documents are submitted and the event is completed. If the applicant is a previous grant recipient, 50 percent of the...

Police: Denver HS student shot 2 staff members, is being sought

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

By Roxanne Garcia, Eric Levenson and Justin Lear | CNNA male student shot and wounded two faculty members at a Denver high school on Wednesday and then fled the scene, spurring a citywide search for his whereabouts, according to city officials.The shooting at East High School was reported at about 9:50 a.m., and police and medical responders arrived on the scene “very quickly” to find two adult men with gunshot wounds, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said.One faculty member is in stable condition, and the other is in critical condition, he said.The student suspected in the shooting, who is under 18, was under a school safety plan in which he was patted down each day, the police chief said. During Wednesday’s search, a handgun was retrieved and several shots were fired in an office area in the front of the school, away from other students and staff, he said.The student then fled the school, and a search is underway for his whereabouts. The weapon has not been recover...

Wall Street is thirsty for its next big investment opportunity: The West’s vanishing water

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

By Lucy Kafanov | CNNSituated in the Sonoran Desert near the Arizona-California border is the tiny rural town of Cibola — home to roughly 300 people, depending on the season.Life here depends almost entirely on the Colorado River, which nourishes thirsty crops like cotton and alfalfa, sustains a nearby wildlife refuge and allows visitors to enjoy boating and other recreation.It’s a place few Americans are likely to have heard of, which made it all the more surprising when investment firm Greenstone Management Partners bought nearly 500 acres of land here. On its website, Greenstone says its “goal is to advance water transactions that benefit both the public good and private enterprise.”But critics accuse Greenstone — a subsidiary of the East Coast financial services conglomerate MassMutual — of trying to profit off Cibola’s most precious and limited resource: water. And it comes at a time when Arizona’s allocation of Colorado River wat...

California man arrested 10 times in 1 month, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

CLOVIS, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A Fresno man has been arrested for the tenth time in a single month, according to the Clovis Police Department.38-year-old Keith Chastain was booked into the Fresno County Jail for the tenth time since Feb. 19, 2023, officials say.The most recent arrest took place Tuesday evening when Clovis Police say they received a call about a stolen truck that Chastain was suspected of driving.An officer located the stolen truck driving in Old Town Clovis and followed it until additional officers were in the area, according to authorities. Officers initiated a high-risk traffic stop in front of the Clovis Police Department and arrested Chastain without incident. Photo Credit: Clovis Police DepartmentOfficers say he was the only person in the stolen truck and was on his way to pick up his personal property from the police department when he was arrested. During these 10 arrests in 31 days, Chastain was arrested by Clovis Police six times - and other agencies four tim...

Michael Jordan considering sale of Hornets; no deal imminent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

Michael Jordan is considering selling the Charlotte Hornets.The six-time NBA champion is in negotiations to sell at least a portion of the franchise to a group that includes Hornets minority owner Gabe Plotkin.“Four years ago, Michael Jordan sold a stake in the Charlotte Hornets to a Gabe Plotkin-led group,” Jump Management, which is Michael Jordan’s family office, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “As a natural step in a process due to that transaction, Michael and Gabe are in discussions about his group potentially buying an additional stake.”No deal is imminent.“At this time, it is unclear whether an additional sale will take place,” the statement read.In 2019, Jordan sold a portion of the Hornets to Plotkin, a founder of Melvin Capital, and Daniel Sundheim of DI Capital, but he still controls the vast majority of the team’s equity.It’s unclear whether Jordan is looking to sell his entire majority stake in the team.Jordan is the NBA’s only Black owner. He ...

NHL players: Crosby most complete; McDavid tops for clutch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby continues being regarded by his peers as the NHL’s most complete player, though he takes a backseat to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid in having the best chance to produce in the clutch.Those are among the findings in the National Hockey League Players’ Association releasing its sixth annual and eighth overall survey of players on Wednesday. Overall, 625 players participated in answering 14 questions.Crosby, a two-time regular-season and two-time playoff MVP, earned just over 30% of the vote in the most complete player category which he’s now won or shared first place for a fourth consecutive year. Boston’s Patrice Bergeron, with 18.8% of the vote, and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov (17.1%), finished in the top three for a fourth straight year, with McDavid ranking fourth.The tables turned when it came to McDavid — who is running away with the NHL points race — earning 59.3% of the vote in who players would want next to them in a must-win situation, ...

GM to stop making the Camaro but a successor may be in works

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:10:36 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many teenage American males, is going out of production.General Motors, which sells the brawny muscle car, said Wednesday it will stop making the current generation early next year.The future of the car, which is raced on NASCAR and other circuits, is a bit murky. GM says another generation may be in the works.“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of Camaro’s story,” Scott Bell, vice president of Chevrolet, said in a statement.The current sixth-generation Camaro, introduced in 2016, has done well on the racetrack, but sales have been tailing off in recent years. When the current generation Camaro came out in 2016, Chevrolet sold 72,705 of them. But by the end of 2021 that number fell almost 70% to 21,893. It rebounded a bit last year to 24,652. GM said last of the 2024 model year of the cars will come off the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan, in January.Sp...